Tony Jones says Damian Hardwick’s close contact comments raise some questions

Tony Jones says AFL coaches may be overstating their importance by commenting on political issues.

It comes after Richmond coach Damian Hardwick questioned the Victorian government’s close contact COVID-19 policy after Richmond player Sydney Stack was denied the chance to play in the VFL because he had to isolate.

Under the policy, household contacts of a positive COVID-19 case must isolate for seven days.

The comments came during the Tigers post-game press conference after they lost to St Kilda by 33 points.

“I can tell you that there is households and small businesses right across Victoria on their knees because of the close contact rules,” Tony Jones said on 3AW Drive.

“So being denied a chance to play in a VFL match isn’t that much of an inconvenience, I wouldn’t have thought in the overall scheme of things.”

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Hardwick later took to Twitter on Monday afternoon to clarify his comments, saying they were a “tongue in cheek reference to the fact we missed Sydney Stack”.

To clarify, my comments post-match regarding rules around close contacts were a tongue in cheek reference to the fact we missed Sydney Stack on the wknd. Nothing more. People far better placed than myself put these rules in place to support the efforts of our health care workers.

— Damien Hardwick (@hardwick_damien) April 4, 2022

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